DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal’s President Macky Sall said Monday that he would not seek a third term in office, surprising many in the West African nation and setting what democracy advocates say they hope is a positive precedent in the region.
English
Democracy Advocates Applaud Senegal’s President Macky Sall’s Decision Against Seeking Reelection
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Alioune Tine, a rights expert and founder of the AfrikaJom Center, a Dakar-based research organization, compared Sall’s decision to “deactivating a bomb.”
“The miracle for us is that each time we have the impression that Senegal is on a slippery slope and seems like it is irreversible, there’s something that arrives to save the country,” Tine said. “The fact that Macky decided not to run for a third term, despite the support of his partisans, is an extremely positive thing.”
Sall’s announcement comes as democratic norms in the region are already under threat, with junta governments that seized power via coups now in power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea. In the Ivory Coast and Togo, presidents are currently serving past the two terms originally mandated by their constitutions. (The president of the Ivory Coast said there’d been a “reset,” while Togo’s legislature changed its law).
Catherine Lena Kelly, an expert on Senegalese politics at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a research group that is part of the United States Defense Department, said Sall deserves credit for his decision to respect the constitution, noting that Senegal has a long history of its leaders trying to hold onto power past their term limits.
